Accuracy rate high for state's gas pumps, price scanners

Apr. 6, 2013

State inspectors tested a record number of gas pumps in 2012 — 31,643 — and 99.5 percent of the time consumers either received the correct amount of gas or were undercharged. / Dan Powers/Post-Crescent Media

Written by

Post-Crescent Media

Bigger perspective on public spending

Your property taxes are spent on police and fire services, education, utilities, public works, parks and recreation, a judicial system, economic development and more, and you deserve to know how that money is used. Each Sunday, The Post-Crescent examines a slice of that spending: where taxes go, what they buy, and, as often as possible, how the spending compares with similar expenditures elsewhere in Wisconsin. If you have a suggestion for our Public Spending Desk, contact Editor/Local Enterprise Andy Thompson at athompson@postcrescent.com or 920-993-1000, ext. 257.

Reporting a complaint

For additional information or to file a complaint, visit the Consumer Protection Bureau at datcp.wisconsin.gov, send an email to datcphotline@wisconsin.gov or call the Consumer Protection Hotline toll-free at 800-422-7128.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Consumers who worry about the accuracy of gas pumps and price scanners can rest easy, according to a state agency.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection’s (DATCP) weights and measures team is responsible for regularly monitoring the accuracy of gas pumps, price scanners, retail scales and package weights.

The team recently compiled the data from 2012 and, by a wide margin, consumers are getting what they paid for at stores and gas stations.

“Weights and measures inspections are fundamental to ensuring that consumers can be confident in their dealings with Wisconsin businesses,” said Sandy Chalmers, division administrator for Trade and Consumer Protection. “When you see the DATCP weights and measures seal at the gas pump, retail scale or check register, you know that the device has passed inspection and that you can trust the integrity of the transaction.”

Chalmers said inspectors tested a record number of gas pumps in 2012 — 31,643 — and 99.5 percent of the time consumers either received the correct amount of gas or were undercharged.

Gas pumps that fail to dispense accurately are rejected and ordered to be corrected by DATCP. When corrections have been made by the pumps’ owner, DATCP inspectors make a second visit to ensure that these corrections have resulted in accurate gasoline delivery, Chalmers said.

Here are the results from the state inspections:

• 229,958: The number of weights and measure inspections performed by the state in 2012.

• 6,946: The number of businesses that were inspected in 2012.

• $189,280: The amount paid in civil forfeiture settlements in 2012 by nine Wisconsin companies as a result of weights and measures inspections.

• $1,000 to $109,396: The range in penalties imposed for violations, including false quantities, failure to seal, altering a license certificate and misrepresenting the accuracy of a weights and measures device.

• 31,643: The number of gasoline pumps inspected in Wisconsin in 2012.

• 99.5 percent: The frequency that consumers were charged accurately or undercharged at gas pumps.

• 99.7 percent: The “total accuracy rate,” which reflects all overcharges and undercharges, as gas pumps.

• 35,384: The number of items tested on price scanners in Wisconsin last year.

• 98.7 percent: The number of times a consumer was charged accurately or undercharged on price scanners.